This time of year, you can’t throw a rock in this town without hitting a holiday show. If you’re like me, a little Christmas cheer goes a long way, and eggnog is definitely better spiked. Which is why Christine Ebersole and Billy Stritch’s new show I’ll Be Home for Christmas at 54 Below feels so refreshing. Sure, there’s definitely plenty of sentiment ladled out in the course of the evening, roughly two thirds of which is devoted to Yuletide-themed numbers. But there’s also plenty of hilarity, thanks to Ebersole’s perfectly timed, deadpan delivery of witty jokes that prevent treacliness from settling in. Add to that the singer’s beautiful vocals and Stritch’s jazzy arrangements, and you’ve got a Christmas show even Scrooge would love. The standing-room only crowd was clearly in a holiday mood, with more than a few garish Christmas sweaters on display.
The duo has been performing and recording together off-and-on for twenty years, but this engagement marks their 54 Below debut. And the timing is perfect, since Ebersole revealed that as soon as their last show on Sunday is over, she’s heading to the airport to fly to L.A. to resume taping her hit sitcom Bob Hearts Abishola, now entering its fifth and final season. Her loss may be our gain, since hopefully it will provide her the opportunity to once again appear on Broadway, where she hasn’t been seen since 2017’s War Paint.
Performing with Stritch on piano (and occasional vocals) and bassist Michael O’ Brien and drummer Ray Marchica, Ebersole brought her still-lustrous soprano voice to a range of holiday and winter-themed songs including a jazzy “Winter Wonderland,” the tender ballad “Christmas Love Song,” the sultry “The Ice Hotel,” Joni Mitchell’s classic “River,” and the little-known “Christmas in L.A.” Prior to singing the last number, Ebersole confessed to being uncharacteristically nervous, since the song’s composer, actor David Rasche (Succession), was in the audience.
The evening also served as a theatrical retrospective of sorts, with Ebersole performing a trio of songs from 42nd Street, in which she played Dorothy Brock in the 2001 revival (Stritch, to whom she accorded the lead vocal on “We’re in the Money,” joked that he “co-starred” as the “rehearsal pianist”), and a “mash-up” of “Another Winter in a Summer Town” and “Drift Away,” both from Grey Gardens and delivered gorgeously.
Interspersed throughout the evening were Ebersole’s witty asides and introductions. “I think this is a good opportunity to talk about ourselves. I’ll start with me,” she announced at one point. She mentioned that Stritch hails from Texas, which she said was a Latin world meaning “death penalty.” And she related a touching monologue about her experiences of Christmas as a child, adding, “When I turned seven, I started to show signs of critical thinking.”
The encore, naturally enough, was Irving Berlin’s classic “White Christmas,” with Ebersole inviting a robust audience sing-along before reclaiming the finale for herself. She also played a homemade recording made in her home on Christmas Eve in 1956, when she was just three years old, in which she robustly sang “Jingle Bells.” She was good then. She’s even better now.
